Ashes and Stardust
by PrettyFrog
Summary: She was sixteen the first time she picked up a weapon. Sixteen the day she decided to fight. One young soldier must rise from ashes to become the hero the galaxy desperately needs.
1. Chapter 1 - Mindoir

"Samuel! Get back here!" Abigail leaned out the front door of the fabricated unit and saw her youngest disappear over the hill. "Augh." She turned to her eldest. "Jessie, sweetheart, will you go chase your brother down?"

The teenager dutifully stood up, grabbing her jacket as she went. Abigail waited until she too, had disappeared over the hill. Hopefully, Samuel would be able to keep her distracted long enough. She stuck her head into the room that contained her husband and other daughter. "Alright, she's gone. Get the decorations."

Brenda giggled as she dove into the cupboard and began pulling out the banner. "Did you get her the bike?" She glanced at her father.

"You only want her to have the bike so she can take you places." He shook his head fondly.

"Well, yeah."

#

Jessie slipped around the trees to cut off her brother's escape. Fortunately, at six he was pretty predictable. He was glancing back over his shoulder when she moved in front of him. As soon as he started moving again, he ran directly into her.

"Oof."

"How long did Mom tell you to keep me out of the house for?"

Samuel grinned up at her. "I told her you'd figure it out. I mean, it's not like you don't know when your birthday is." He shrugged. "An hour."

"Want to head over to the river see if we can catch one of those lizard things?" She ruffled his hair before offering him her hand.

He took it and smiled broadly as he followed her down the hill. "Can I name it Fred?"

"Well, they are ugly and stinky." She smiled at him. "So we better name it Sam."

"I'm not -" He tripped and would have fallen if he hadn't been clinging to her hand.

She knelt, and let him climb up on her back. He let out a joyous whoop as she began to run, leaping over the ruts in the field.

#

Ted looked up at the sound of the odd humming noise, and shrugged. He stepped out into the backyard. Abigail was hanging the banner wishing their eldest a Sweet Sixteen. "Honey, did you hear -"

The sound came again, and then his wife was lying on the ground, the top half of her head missing. He screamed her name. A figure turned towards him, gun moving, and he ducked back into the house. There was a burning pain in his side as he grabbed his daughter's hand and began to run.

#

"Jessie?"

"Stay behind me." Jessie saw the smoke rising from the circle of homes. People were being rounded up. Others were trying to run or fight. She heard a familiar voice scream, and saw Samuel's teacher being incinerated. She caught her brother before he could see, and dragged him from the scene.

#

"Mommy?" Samuel's voice was small.

Jessie saw the figure on the ground. There was nothing left of the face, but the corpse wore her mother's dress. She could still hear the sound of weapons fire from the other side of the village. She caught her brother's hand. "That's not Mommy, sweetie. Mommy's waiting for us in a safe place." She pulled him with her. "We just need to..."

An armored figure stepped into her way. All four of the man's eyes stared at her as he started to aim his weapon in her direction. He might have said something. She couldn't hear it over the rush of blood in her head. As soon as the weapon turned towards her brother, she launched herself at the batarian, knocking him to the ground.

She landed atop him. Somehow, her hand found a rock. She brought it down on his face once, twice, she wasn't sure how many times before he stopped moving. She looked behind her, and saw her brother cowering. Blood coated her hands. She took a deep breath, and picked up the weapon. "We need to keep moving."

There was blood on her hands. She wiped it off on the grass before reaching for her brother. He swallowed and took it, and pride filled her. "That's it, Sammy. I just need you to be brave for a few more minutes."

#

Brenda was sobbing. Ted pulled his daughter to him. The bodies of his neighbors, friends, and colleagues littered the ground. Those that had surrendered were being rounded up into cages. He saw no sign of his eldest or youngest child. "Brenda, sweetie, I need you to be quiet for daddy."

She nodded, and choked down the tears. "Okay."

"That's my brave girl. We just need..."

Something kicked the door in. Despair filled him as four batarians entered their hiding place. He screamed for Brenda to run as he launched himself at them.

#

She saw them drag her father out into the street, and threw him to his knees. One of the batarians aimed a weapon, and...

#

They were almost out of the habitat. Past the farms, into the forested area that had yet to be terraformed. No one would find them there. The batarians would go, and help would come, and they'd be safe.

She heard the sound of weaponfire behind her, and Samuel stumbled. She swung him up onto her hip and kept running.

#

Red.

A hole through her baby brother.

She put her hands on the wound, trying to stop the flow.

His eyes closed.

They didn't reopen.

Something broke.

#

Anderson looked over the wreckage. Mindoir had been a pastoral world. A quiet world. A safe world. He could smell charcoal and burned flesh as his unit walked through the burned out remains of what had been homes.

Most of the batarians were already gone, along with those they'd taken as slaves. Their scans had picked up several ships, pirates looting from the dead.

They were moving towards what had been a hospital when they encountered their first hostiles. Batarians and Vorcha fired on them before fleeing. Vollan started to give chase, and Anderson was moving in to provide backup when Vollan stepped on the mine. The explosion killed Vollan and sent Anderson flying. He hit a wall, and saw a vorcha smile as he started to level his weapon.

Something blew the vorcha's head off. The vorcha's companions started to turn in the direction of the fire, and Anderson realized a heartbeat later that none of his squadmates were in that location.

He got his own gun into position and opened fire as his squadmates joined the fray. Three of the batarians ran, and he gestured to some of his squad before following.

Before they caught them, two of the batarians had fallen to weapon fire. The third closed with whoever was firing and roared a battle cry before a machete hit him in the side of the neck. The blow staggered the batarian, but it took four more before the attacker had done enough damage to make him fall.

Anderson approached. Blood matted the girl's hair to her head, and there was a crazed gleam in her eyes. She adjusted her grip on the blade before aiming the pistol in her other hand at him. He saw his squadmates start to move, and held up his hand. "Hold." He took a step closer. In addition to the pistol, the girl had two batarian style shotguns in a makeshift holster across her back, and a second pistol had been secured to her leg. And he was pretty sure the bag tied to her waist contained grenades. But the real shock was that he could see still more dead pirates in the building behind her, and it hadn't been his team that had killed them. He held his hands out to his sides, palms open. "My name is Anderson. I'm with the alliance."

She tilted her head at him as if trying to make sense of his words. And the pistol in her hand didn't shake in the slightest. He tried again. "Are you hurt?" Not all the blood on her the right color, but the front of shirt was stiff with dried reddish-brown blood. "There is a doctor on my ship. Dr. Chakwas. She's a real nice lady." Carefully, he took another step.

The pistol wavered just slightly. He took a deep breath, and took another step forward. "My name is Anderson. What's your name?" He was only a couple feet from her now.

Her eyes were hollow. And then they met his. Slowly, the pistol was lowered until it was pointed at the ground. Gently, he took it out of her hand. She released her grip on the machete, and let it fall to the ground. "Will you come with me?" He offered her his hand.

For several long seconds, she just stared at it blankly. And then she put her hand in his.

#

"Has she spoken yet?" Anderson looked at the girl sitting on the examination table.

"No." Dr. Chakwas looked down at the datapad.

"How badly is she hurt?"

"None of the blood was hers." Dr. Chakwas sighed, and met his eyes. "Though based on the results of the scan, most of it..." She glanced back at the girl. "Came from a family member."

"She's the only survivor." He rubbed his forehead. "Not just a survivor..." He folded his arms. "Karin, we found over twenty dead pirates. She killed more than my entire squad did." He frowned. "Do you have an ID?"

"We weren't able to recover records from the city computer. I've sent a request for the backups from Earth." Dr. Chakwas walked back over to where the girl was sitting.

Anderson followed. Dr. Chakwas asked several questions, and the girl did not respond to any of them. She walked back to the medication unit. Anderson looked the girl over again. Now that it was clean, her hair proved to be red. There were a few small abrasions on her face, and bruising around one of her green eyes. He shifted, and she raised her head to look at him. "Do you remember me?"

Slowly, she nodded. "Anderson." A few seconds passed. "Alliance."

"That's me. Anderson. I'm with the alliance."

She was silent again. Dr. Chakwas came over, holding a small syringe. "I would like to give you something. It will help you sleep."

The girl stared at the needle before looking back up at Anderson. "Will I have bad dreams?"

He wanted to tell her no, but knew that answer was unlikely. "You'll dream of a warm place. And when you wake up, you'll be in it."

For a long moment, she was silent. Then she nodded. "Okay."

"Can you tell me your name?" He brushed the hair back from her face as she laid down on the table. Dr. Chakwas gently pushed the needle into her arm. "What should I call you?"

She stared up at him before her eyes started to close from the sedative. "Shepherd."


	2. Chapter 2 - Elysium

Anderson sat down at his desk. The light on his messenger unit was blinking, and he touched the screen. He was scanning the messages when the two alerts from his VI caught his attention. The first informed him that it was Jezebel Shepherd's eighteenth birthday. And the second informed him that Jezebel Shepherd had just sent in her application to join the Alliance military. A smile came to his face when he realized the two messages were three minutes and forty two seconds apart.

#

She scanned the small crowd, and her eyes locked on a young woman with red hair and green eyes. As she walked over, the young woman smiled. "Dr. Chakwas. What brings you here?"

Dr. Chakwas smiled. "I heard a rumor that a Jezebel Shepherd had just finished basic training, and required celebratory drinks." She gestured at the door, and they began walking. They picked a small bar that enabled them to watch the ships come and go from the spaceport. Her heart warmed as the young woman laughed, telling an anecdote about an obstacle course gone hilariously wrong.

#

She got up the barrier just in time to block the debris from the missile strike. "Tell me someone jammed an extra ammo block or two up their asses before heading out this morning."

"Thought about it, sir." Jaspard said from where he was trying to put the communication unit back together. "But with the Asari dancing girls and keg of brandy, there just wasn't room."

"Amjad, make a note. When we get out of this, I expect Asari dancing girls and a double."

"Freshly laundered, of course." Hasid nodded. "No good, Lieutenant. We're pinned down. Even if we managed one hit, one kill, we don't have enough ammo left."

"Jaspard, get that comm unit working." Shepherd adjusted her omniblade, and started to stand up.

"Sir, where are you going?"

"We need ammo." She jerked her head at the enemy position. "I'm going to go get some."

#

He looked over the report. An alliance unit, pinned down, under fire, and low on ammunition. A hopeless situation, they called it. Almost hopeless. His eyes went to the picture accompanying the report. The hair was military short instead of hanging down to midback, but the eyes were the same unrelenting green.

Anderson pulled up the form, and filled it out quickly. He stared at the datapad, and his mind went back to the ship, in orbit above the ruins of Mindoir. Jezebel Shepherd, age sixteen. Parents Abigail and Theodore. Siblings Brenda, age twelve, and Samuel, age six. No surviving relatives. Latent biotic abilities.

In the space for training officer, he wrote his own name. He smiled when he sent the form in, and added another alert to his VI. It would be interesting to see just how she handled ICT training.

#

"...climbs down from the tower, stark naked, and screaming about..."

"Lawry, I have a question." Shepherd hung her head over her drink.

"Yes?"

"Are you physically capable of remaining silent for longer than six seconds?"

"Um..." He shrugged. "No. Not at all." He continued. "So he's screaming about bees and goes running..."

"Lawry."

"Yes?"

"How many times would I have to shoot you to change that?"

"I'm not sure, exactly, sir." Lawry frowned. "I mean, based on prior experience, it would have to be more than four, at least. I'd estimate at least seven or eight."

"Akuze is terraformed. It doesn't even have -" The sound of an explosion cut Shepherd off. Somewhere in the distance, someone started screaming. "Gentlemen, grab your gear. Leave is canceled."

#

She grabbed Lawry's wrist and yanked him back into cover. "How bad?" Shepherd yanked the medigel unit out of her pack.

"Sorry, Lieutenant." He looked up at her. "I can't..."

Shepherd handed him a rifle. "Stay here and hold this position." She checked the load on her sidearm, and grabbed an extra ammo block.

"Sir."

"The rest of our squad and a lot of civilians are down there, Ensign." She caught his head, and made him look her in the eye. "Hold this position. Any of them get past me, it's on you."

"Yes, sir."

The other rifle went into her harness. She took a deep breath, flared her biotics, and charged.

#

"Six hours." Anderson looked down at the report, then back up at the man on the screen. "She held the position for six hours? By herself?"

"Damn good thing too." Hackett nodded. "Any of the pirates had made it past, they'd have been able to turn the ground guns against our ships."

"What was she even doing on Elysium?"

"She and some of her team were on shore leave." Hackett chuckled. "There was apparently a fistfight between a couple of the colonists over who got to pick up their bar tab."

"Little Jessie grew up," Anderson said the words softly.

"She's getting a promotion out of this." Hackett nodded. "And word just came down. While not technically a mission, ICT is of the belief that this was handled in an 'admirable and effective fashion.' She's officially N7."

Anderson folded his arms. "I want her on my ship."

Hackett nodded. "I'll make it happen."

#

Shepherd looked up from the man in the hospital bed to see a familiar face at the door. Immediately, she saluted. "Captain."

"At ease." Anderson nodded. "How is he?"

She glanced down at the wounded Lawry. "Unfortunately, the doctor says he's going to be back to his old self in a couple days. Nothing they can do for it."

Lawry shook a fist at her, but smiled. "Thanks to you."

Anderson gestured for her to accompany him, and she followed him to a quieter location. "Been a long time, Shepherd."

"Six years, sir." She nodded. "You haven't changed."

"I've been following your career. I thought this latest bit should be delivered in person. Congratulations, Lieutenant Commander. You've just received your N7."

"Thank you si..." She blinked. "Lieutenant Commander?"

"And a promotion." He smiled. "As well as a transfer."

"A transfer, sir?"

He nodded. "You work for me now."

#

"Hold your fire."

"Sir?" The marine turned to look at her.

Shepherd gestured at the batarians. "White flags. They are surrendering."

"Sir, they are..."

"Surrendering." She narrowed her eyes. Shepherd took a deep breath, and tried not to think about Mindoir. Her father on his knees when they...

"They wouldn't accept our surrender." The marine spat as he lowered his rifle.

"They are pirates." She squared her shoulders. "We are Alliance, soldier. And we are better than that."

"Yes, sir."

She glanced down as the comm unit beeped, and listened to the message play. It was over. Whatever pirates were still alive were surrendering and laying down arms. Torfan was theirs.

#

Anderson tried not to hold his breath when the ambassador picked up the dossier from the top of the pile. Udina looked it over. "Well, what about Shepherd? She grew up in the colonies."

"She knows how tough life can be out there. Her parents were killed when slavers attacked Mindoir." He didn't mention the siblings. Or the steady hand of a sixteen year old girl as she pointed a pistol at him.

Hackett spoke up. "She proved herself during the Blitz. Held off enemy forces on the ground until reinforcements arrived."

"She's the only reason Elysium is still standing." Anderson kept his voice steady. If he pushed too hard for his protege, Udina might balk. He might have failed, but if anyone could do this, it was Shepherd.

Udina nodded as he scrolled through the list of accomplishments. "We can't question her courage."

"Humanity needs a hero." Part of him had expected Torfan to be a bloodbath. After Mindoir, he wasn't sure anyone could have blamed Shepherd if she'd opened fire. But she hadn't. "And Shepherd's the best we've got."

The ambassador set the dossier back down. "I'll make the call."


End file.
